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Audience Score

UHF Ratings & Reviews Explanation

UHF
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Movie Info

When a desperate UHF station gives the seriously odd George the job of manager, he proves to be a programming genius, turning the station around -- and attracting the attention of an unscrupulous competitor. This comedy focuses most of its creative attention on numerous bizarre television parodies featured throughout.

Has everything but the kitchen sink, and while it doesn't always hit the sweetest notes of inspiration, it maintains a lovable spiritedness and offers the odd gut-buster. And dumb guy humor. UHF has some of the best dumb guy humor around.

Audience Reviews for UHF

Sep 27, 2013

From the master of parody, "Weird Al" Yankovic, comes the brilliantly hilarious cult comedy UHF. When George Newman becomes the manager of a fly by night UHF television station his unique programming ends up turning it into the number one station in town. The writing is very good, featuring clever parodies of Indiana Jones, Rambo, Network, Conan, Gandhi, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Starring Michael Richards, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, and Billy Barty, the film has some great comedic talent. And in addition to writing and starring, "Weird Al" contributes several songs to the soundtrack. One of the best parody films ever made, UHF is wildly entertaining and full of laughs.

Weird Al has much better musical parody ideas than for film, but offers a couple laughs here & there. First place I ever saw Michael Richards who plays a slow janitor with a deep emotional attachment to his blue-handled mop, I still remember & chuckle over the moment where he retrieves it from the bad guys and swings it back & forth with the sound effects of a lightsaber.

'Weird Al' Yankovic is primarily a comedic songwriter and parody musician, but in his first instance of movie stardom, he shines brighter than ever. During the eighties the absolute best parody films were made, including Leslie Nielsen's "Spy Hard" and "Naked Gun", Mel Brooks' History of the World Part One, and a bevy of other films that were both cheesy and highly enjoyable. Yankovic is best known for his re-workings of popular songs, and here he takes stabs at other films, including "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "First Blood." Besides all the mentions of famous films, there are some very original laughs to be had with Yankovic's off brand and zany humor. His acting is surprisingly focused and his character comes off as charmingly befuddled throughout. Besides a controlled performance from Yankovic there is a highly talented cast assembled: Fran Drescher pre-Nanny fame shows up as the outspoken secretary turned reporter, Michael Richardson pre-Seinfeld busts out as a kooky janitor turned children's TV show host, and Victoria Jackson plays Weird Al's responsible girlfriend. The premise of the film isn't all that out there, as Weird Al plays George Newman, a down and out man at the middle road in his life eventually getting the manager's position at a local UHF station. He makes the station popular with weird shows that generate a lot of buzz, but he has to stop the maniacal competitor who is trying to buy the station out from under them. It's sweet, spontaneous, and pretty much the epitome of classic comedy film, so if you haven't given it much credence beforehand, do so now.